How, where to find help in making sense of the Bay Area's bulky ballots

Zachary Coile., OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

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4:00 am PDT, Thursday, May 28, 1998

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How, where to find help in making sense of the Bay Area's bulky ballots

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1998-05-28 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA -- For all but the most ardent political junkies, the ballot for Tuesday's primary is enough to make you pull your hair out.

"This ballot is overwhelming," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a Sacramento-based nonprofit group that puts out information to voters. "It takes a lot of time and careful study of the ballot to walk into the voting booth and vote with confidence. I think people want to make informed decisions, but the fact is we are all extremely busy."

With the state's first open primary, voters have to pick through a list of 87 candidates for statewide office, from governor to superintendent of schools.

Voters also will be asked, in nine state ballot initiatives, to decide everything from how to fix the state's bilingual education system to whether unions should have to ask members' permission before spending their dues on politics. Oakland and San Jose have high-profile mayor races, and voters in San Francisco face choices on a dozen local ballot measures.

But for those who see voting as their civic duty, and are willing to do some digging, there is help.

Public libraries are stocking nonpartisan voter guides. Internet sites aimed at voters are brimming with information. And ballot pamphlets sent to all voters by the secretary of state and the registrar of voters are jammed with information, even if much of it is written in bureaucratese.

"We tell people to read their voter information pamphlet," said Naomi Nishioka, acting director of the San Francisco Registrar of Voters.

The guide has candidate statements as well as pro-and-con arguments and cost analyses on all the ballot measures.

"I think it gives people a pretty good overview of what the arguments are on each side."

Nishioka said San Francisco voters should expect a longer ballot, with measures on whether to raise supervisors' salaries, to fund an $89 million reconstruction of the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, and to exempt property with four or fewer units from rent control. But it won't be nearly as complex as the November 1993 ballot that featured 28 local ballot measures.

All California voters will encounter a new ballot because of the state's new "blanket" primary. For the first time, voters can pick from any of the 17 governor candidates, 12 U.S. Senate hopefuls and 13 contenders for lieutenant governor, regardless of their party affiliation.

"Instead of eating at one restaurant and having one meal, you have a buffet of sorts," said Shirley Washington, spokeswoman for the secretary of state.

Secretary of State Bill Jones predicted 42 percent - 6.1 million - of California's 14.6 million registered voters would participate in the Tuesday primary.

Absentee ballot factor&lt;

If true, it would be the largest percentage turnout since 1982, and the largest number of voters since 1978, when 6.8 million Californians went to the polls. Jones said the turnout would be large because of the open primary and because the state had received a large number of absentee ballot applications.

Many San Francisco voters said they had yet to make up their minds on the key races.

Rhodes Gardner, a 44-year-old engineering consultant, said he had heard a lot about the candidates for governor, but very little about the other statewide candidates.

"I still need some more information," Gardner said.

Even Mary Holscher, a polling-place worker in San Francisco, said she wasn't up on all the issues.

"I've been really late this time in getting information," Holscher said.

"Every election, people want to know about the ballot, especially the city ballot," Lynch said. "Sometimes we send them over to the newspaper area, where they can get stories. If they want to research candidates, we have directories of political figures."

On-line sources&lt;

By far the greatest amount of information available about the election is on-line.

Voters can search candidate sites for biographies, and news media sites for campaign stories. Several nonpartisan groups are posting candidates' positions on issues, as well as arguments for and against ballot measures. The secretary of state's office also is putting last-minute financial contributions on its World Wide Web site, so voters can see who is funding candidates and campaigns.

The major parties also are mailing information to their members, as are other political interest groups.

"People who belong to a professional organization have undoubtedly gotten some sort of message passed down the line, and people who belong to labor unions have also gotten some sort of information," said UC-Berkeley Professor Ray Wolfinger, a specialist on voter behavior.

One source of information that political experts warn not to trust is the slate mailer, the mostly unsolicited cards mailed to voters that feature endorsements from groups with generic-sounding names such as "Democratic Supporters Committee." Candidates often have to pay to get their names on the cards.

Nishioka said the best advice for voters in the final days before the election was to keep their ears open.

"Pay attention," Nishioka said. "Read the newspaper, listen to the radio, watch TV. Listen to your friends. I think there is a lot of information out there. I don't think anyone should be lacking in information." &lt;